Good Behavior
by Urchin of the Riding Stars
Summary: A sympathetic Danny just wanted to save a life. He had no idea that he'd be signing his over to a fanatical and obsessive monster in the process. Pompous Pep.
1. Duty

Good Behavior

A sympathetic Danny just wants to save a life. He had no idea that he'd be signing his over to a fanatical and obsessive monster in the process. Pompous Pep.

~(*0*)~

* * *

><p>Hey, everyone. Still feeling a little yucky…but will be submitting happier works to come. :-) This coming week looks a lot better than its predecessor….hoping yours is a good one, too. May or not continue this one. I dunno. Lots of other projects that need doing, too.<p>

* * *

><p><em>"And thus the words were spoken,<br>And this the plighted vow,  
>And, though my faith be broken,<br>And, though my heart be broken,  
>Here is a ring, as token<br>That I am happy now!_

_Would God I could awaken!  
>For I dream I know not how!<br>And my soul is sorely shaken  
>Lest an evil step be taken,-<br>Lest the dead who is forsaken  
>May not be happy now."<em>

_-Edgar Allen Poe, _The Bride

~(*0*)~

* * *

><p>He has to wonder if what he did was kind. On his better days, he battles with himself; insists that it wasn't at all his fault. It had just…happened, and the events that had followed after their fateful tryst were nothing more than the mad and tragic mechanisms of a madman.<p>

But those "good days" seem to diminishing quickly; becoming few and far between. More often than not, Danny blames himself bitterly as he repeats the meaningless mantra he knows will keep his captor sane. He's running out of tears to cry at night, and the horrible, hollow feeling that comes with helpless and empty sadness is slowly crushing him to pieces.

There's only one source of companionship, one source of abundant affection that he knows will never run dry, and yet he can't bring himself to accept. If he does, he feels that it will all have meant less than nothing-his struggles, his yearning for freedom, his one and only escape attempt. All these will be diminished somehow if he seeks this safe haven, and so he denies himself, and inwardly moans like a suffering child in his waking hours. Even when he's reluctantly pulled from his waking misery into that hated shelter of protection and some fragile sense of peace, he finds himself counting the months, the weeks, the days, the hours. It's torture to keep track, yet Danny doesn't really think he can bear the alternative of allowing days simply fly by unnoticed and uncounted till they at last become years. Recognizing that a year has gone by might simply kill him, and while that would in many ways be a relief, his inward instinct to survive has not yet died, for better or for worse.

* * *

><p>One night, much like the others, Danny stares at the ceiling while multiple hands caress his body, all belonging to the same culprit. Unwilling to think or feel anymore, he presses his face into one of many <em>Orphelia<em> pillows, and waits for the touches to recede. He doesn't really expect them to, and is not surprised when they don't, so he stays hidden, pretending to be asleep.

He can hear a chuckle above him, and he resists a shiver as he feels a hot tongue lazily trace up his body, to his neck. His captor hovers over his body, and while Danny can't see him, he can practically hear the smile Vlad is smiling. He commands:

"Say it."

Danny murmurs into the pillow, but bad idea; it all comes out sounding like garble. Frowning slightly, the dark-haired specter turns him over, and the many hands surrounding the teen immediately help. The red eyed specter gazes down at him, a look of tender affection and adoration on his face. There's a certain waver in his expression now, and Danny can only conclude that the ghost is nervous again. Anxious because he didn't understand Danny immediately, though Danny has wearily repeated himself over and over again.

The younger hybrid stiffens, because he knows exactly what's coming to him and his family if he doesn't comply soon. He quickly replies:

"I love you."

There-the tremor has disappeared from Vlad's face. The pleased ghost scoops Danny from the silky blankets and plush pillows, and immediately pulls him into a kiss. The teen immediately complies when a demanding tongue traces his lips; because his family will die if he doesn't, because Vlad will die if he doesn't. But not before taking a handful of innocent lives with him.

Danny meekly allows the ghost to twist and turn his head wherever he pleases as he ravages his mouth, and the hands resume enthusiastically touching him everywhere, trying to make him feel new types of pleasure.

To his surprise, the corners of his eyes actually burn, but thankfully it's pretty dark in here. Once Vlad withdraws from the kiss to begin attacking Danny's neck and shoulder, the ghost boy timidly touches his shoulder.

"Um….Vlad? Can we, uh, take a bath, now?"

He tries to sound seductive; he's winces at the attempt. He wants to feel clean, because now he feels filthy. He feels no amount of scrubbing will ever be able to remove the filth on his body which has acquired several layers on and under his skin. But he can pretend. He enjoys pretending. It gives him something to do.

Thankfully, Vlad just chuckles softly, and a gleam enters his greedy red eyes.

"I suppose I could acquiesce to the idea," he purrs, carrying Danny bridal-style across the dark bedroom finely decorated in rich fabrics and furnished with pretty, priceless baubles Danny knows now not to smash.

Danny tries to hide a sigh of relief when a distracted Plasmius allows all the clones to vanish in a puff of pink smoke. It isn't as if having only one Vlad makes the situation any better, but he doesn't think he can stand the idea of three or four Vlads holding him down and ravishing him.

The fact that it is feels the way it does is one that Danny would very much like to forget.

~(*0*)~

The marble bath is really more of a pool than anything, but several golden faucets help it fill up quickly with steaming, bubbling water. Still smiling, Vlad carelessly phases his clothes off, and reaches for Danny, already shirtless. Vlad carries the two into the waist-deep water and sits them down at a bench, humming slightly as he pulls Danny closer, making him straddle him.

Despite being soaked in hot water, Danny pales when he feels Vlad's hardness beneath him , and buries his face in Vlad's shoulder, praying that the man won't see his look of horror and mortification.

Luckily, Vlad's mind is on a different agenda. He tucks Danny's head underneath his own, and places Danny's hand on his own cheek. Danny blindly caresses the skin, dropping to the rough stubble at Vlad's chin, keeping care to keep a wide berth away from his mouth. Best not to give him any ideas.

"Say it again," orders Vlad, after a moment, demanding as always.

Danny closes his eyes wearily, now feeling ill.

"I love you."

But Vlad is not satisfied; he can tell that much. He knows what the man is going to say next, so he might as well beat him to the punch.

"Say-"

Danny hates himself for it, but he pulls Vlad into a reluctant kiss, burying his pale hand into the silver strands of the man's long hair and eliciting a groan out of him at the action. As tenderly as he can, he withdraws from Vlad's mouth (With some difficulty) to plant a soft kiss on the surprised man's forehead. He can faintly remember his mother doing that when he was a child. He wonders if Vlad's mother ever did the same.

"I love you, Vlad," he says, being careful to pull away gradually. Perhaps Vlad will be content enough with the sweet-nothings for the evening to hold off on sex. Doesn't seem likely, but Danny can only hope.

Vlad cups his face after he pulls away and gives Danny a look that makes him want to burst out laughing and cry and break things all at once. Danny forces himself to look at the insane cobalt eyes, though he'd rather be viewing a particularly messy car wreck.

"I love you too, little badger," breathess Vlad gently, kissing him on the forehead and releasing him. "More than anything."

Biting his lip, Danny slowly turns around again, feeling Vlad tucking his head underneath his chin. His muscled chest contracts, than exhales softly as the man slowly sighs in content.

For a moment, there is blissful silence. Danny glowers daggers at the water, feeling his eyes prickle again when Vlad hums a faint tune, rubbing circles on the boy's arms.

Vlad could have easily purchased one of those annoying dolls that say "I love you" over and over again, and avoided all this trouble. He doesn't even seem to notice that the words are pronounced sadly and mechanically; they are meaningless.

But he has to behave. He can never, in a million years, love Vlad. At least, he sincerely hopes he can't. The days have been getting harder, and the nights more lonely once they've finished their carnal act. If Vlad is trying to drive him insane as well, he is doing a good job.

Despite the fact that he's raped on a nightly basis by him, it feels _good_ to hold onto someone who will gladly hold is why he can't bring himself to seek Vlad's comfort of his own volition. It would destroy what little remained of his will, make him buy into Vlad's insanity.

He would not, could not succumb to Stockholm Syndrome.

Out of the corner of his eye, he notices Vlad reaching for a nearby vial of pink liquid. With any luck, it's only more of that girly, rose-smelling stuff that makes him want to roll his eyes and huff, and not lubricant.

Danny's luck is holding out-it's only bath goo. He shivers slightly as Vlad pours a generous amount on his fingers, and starts massaging the oil into his delicate skin. Vlad's smile turns into a smirk, and his hands dip lower unsubtly to the boy's waist, warm thumbs rolling circles on his hips.

_'Three months, seventeen days, four hours_,' thinks Danny desperately, as Vlad's movements become yet more sensual and forceful. He wishes he had a watch so that he could count the minutes. _'Three months, seventeen days, four hours_, _three months, seventeen days, four-'_

"Aaah!" Danny exclaims, as Vlad's hand dips below the hot water, and begins to pump his member. "Aaggh, Vlad, I-"

But Vlad is smiling his trademark evil smile, and his heart sinks; he knows what this will come to. He whimpers before Vlad pulls him into yet another kiss, feels Vlad reassuringly rub at his shoulders, smirking in the kiss when he feels Danny quiver with pleasure. Like a snake, Vlad's tongue starts languidly stroking the walls of Danny's mouth, and Danny's shaking hands jump to Vlad's shoulders in an attempt to do _something_.

But this situation is all too familiar to Danny, and he pleads inwardly for it to be over with and soon as possible. Unfortunately, Vlad now seems focused on Danny's pure pleasure rather than his normal carnal need, and the younger halfa realizes with a sinking heart that it will be a very long evening.

Vlad soon moves extracts himself from Danny's gasping mouth, sneering as he trailed to Danny's right nipple, hungrily eyeing it before suckling and biting down on it.

Danny freezes up, heart pounding in his chest. To his disgust, he realizes he's actually leaning into Vlad's warm mouth, and weakly considers tugging away, but soon dismisses the possibility.

Not that he's enjoying the situation, mind you. Like a spoiled child, Vlad always has to get his way.

And like a vicious psychopath, Vlad was no means above slaughtering people to get his way.

Danny scrunches his eyes shut again and colors when Vlad's hands begin to pump faster and faster, and now, he's whispering hotly in Danny's ear:

"Well, little one? Do you want to cum?" he breathed, nipping the shell of Danny's ear erotically, smiling smugly when he hears Danny gasp. "Well? Don't be shy, little badger, tell me what you want, mmm?"

Danny only keeps gasping, hopes that Vlad will not press the issue. But his luck has run out for the evening. Waiting for an answer and not receiving one forthwith, he pulls Danny out of the water, sitting him on the cool porcelain edge. Danny eyes him wide-eyed, terrified.

_'Three months, seventeen days, four hours_.'

_'Three months, twenty-four days, four hours_.'

Nearly four months ago was when everything had began...the makings of his own undoing.

* * *

><p><strong>Okay, so still am working with writing styles...get over it. :-p<strong>


	2. Regret

Good Behavior

Regret

And the single occurrence that sparked a chain of events that led to Danny's capture is...NOT IN THIS CHAPTER! Sorry, folks, you're going to have to wait a little longer.

(~0*0~)

* * *

><p><em>Flashback: Three Months Ago.<em>

Thump-thump. Thump-thump. Thump-thump.

_He squeezed his hands over his chest in order to deafen his painfully thudding heart, which seemed dead-set on soaring out of him and giving him away. But he couldn't come out of hiding. Even though he knew he'd be found eventually; that it was really only a matter of time before heavy footsteps advanced towards the sofas again, he was terrified. He shook; squeezed himself into a tighter ball, and heard Vlad call out sweetly:_

_"Daniel? Daniel, where are you? Dear, dear, my boy...you aren't playing games with me again, are you?"_

_He was a coward. He hated himself. But if he crawled out now, IT would surely happen again, and he couldn't take it anymore. He'd rather die now than feel the man's strong hands on him; the very idea made his skin crawl with dread. He tried to suppress a whimper as Vlad laughed somewhere in the distance, sounding a little shrill._

_"Playing hard to get, are we? Well...you know there's nothing I wouldn't grant you, darling. If you want to play hide-and-seek, then..."_

_Oh God, he craved for his parents to come bursting through the nearby windows right that second. He Vlad winded and bloody...winded, bloody, and UNABLE TO EVER, ever do what he so loved doing to Danny again-!_

_"Daniel..."_

_The voice was a distant purr, but Danny's eyes still filled with tears in the darkness under the large velvet sofa. He could hear various items of furniture hitting the floor with slight thuds from a distance as Vlad checked a nearby room. He heard the thumps and scrapes getting louder after a very short while, as if the man were setting them down with a lot more force than necessary. Danny pressed his pale hands over his mouth and trembled._

_He wanted Tucker to stir him from this never-ending nightmare; to be made a fool out of once he realized he'd simply fallen asleep in one of Lancer's classes. He wanted Sam to tease him, Valerie to talk to, and Jazz to squeeze his hand the way she had when they were both kids waiting to get booster shots in the doctor's clinic. He wanted his mother to come hold him. He wanted out. Someone else to save the day for a change; someone who would allow him to call it quits and insist that he not offer himself up to this monster one more time._

_"Come out, come out, wherever you are..."_

_The voice was becoming much more husky now, but Danny feared the honeyed sweetness that almost always meant danger. Danny wept silently, body trembling in fear. He craved a rescuer. Someone who would make sure he never had to see Vlad Masters again, someone to keep him safe, to take him home._

_But he had no one to do that for him. Ever again. **He **was the alleged hero in this story, although he only felt like a filthy and terrified child. His eyes peered out under the small crack of the couch, where he hid like a cornered and terrified cat. His breath caught in his chest when he glimpsed Vlad's dark boots, and he very nearly fainted then and there._

_"Daniel, where are you?" Vlad fretted, overturning a nearby gold sofa. "You're making me very unhappy. You have on the count of three to come out."_

_There was the horror again, basked again in honey and sugar._

_"One..."_

_Danny cringed as he watched a grandfather clock fly across the room, smashing into pieces._

_**"Two**..."_

_He would do this for them. They would live, and he would...well, not die, but live a fate worse than death; a life in which every day was a never-ending hell. Oh, why had he been left all alone, here? His heart was dying of loneliness, even with an almost constant-companion. Especially with HIM breathing down his shoulder every waking second._

_But there could be no other option but death for his loved ones. There was no time for fear, especially when it meant saving the lives of the people he loved._

_Danny wriggled out from underneath the couch just as Vlad drew breath to count "Three." He swiped the tears from his face with the back of his hand, trying to make it look as if he were only trying to nonchalantly smooth his hair back as he slowly stood up. He tried to smile, but his mouth was quivering an awful lot, which made his expression look like a grimace._

_Now Danny's tormentor and forceful lover was glowering down at him, seething fury etched out into every line of his face. His gloved fists were quivering. Danny cocked his head, and made himself speak innocently:_

_"I'm sorry; I was just playing. I didn't want to make you mad, Vlad."_

_A deathly hush. Danny went extremely hot, then very cold. He weakly tried again:_

_"Welcome home. I...I thought I'd surprise you?..."_

_Still nothing. Danny exhaled, and braced himself for a blow. With any luck, it wouldn't be as bad as the one he'd gotten the last time._

_"...y-you aren't upset, a-are you?" he asked softly._

_Vlad immediately struck him around the face; the impact sent him crumbling to his knees again, seeing red. His cheek burned as if he'd just received multiple bee stings. He heard Vlad gasp sharply, and through his watering eyes, saw the older halfa stagger away from him, looking sick and horrified._

_"Why do you make me hurt you? You **know** it pains me to see you hurt! Why do you have to be so **difficult** all the time?"_

_"I'm sorry," muttered Danny, as he was immediately swept into a pair of arms, wincing as Vlad immediately started kissing the crown of his head, anxiously feeling around his forehead for any lumps or bruises. "I won't do it again. I'm sorry. I'm sorry."_

_Beatings, he could understand and recover from them fairly quickly, as much as he disliked them. __This, on the other hand, made him nearly sick with nausea. It was a lie, the saddest, most pathetic excuse for a lie that he'd ever seen in his life._

_But the lie kept his family from certain death at the hands of this psychotic madman, who both inspired feelings of terror and utmost disgust in the sixteen year old boy, and so, it had to endure._

_With an inaudible sigh, Danny wrapped his sore arms around the neck, trying not to think of the irony as he gently soothed the nearly hysterical man, rubbing his fingertips through his glossy hair and laying light kisses on his neck. From somewhere in the distance, he thought he heard the strangled sound of a broken cuckoo bird attempting to chime from the wreck of smashed gears behind the two. The sad sound almost made Danny want to smile._

_"Say it," breathed Vlad, his face buried in Danny's shirt. "Say it again."_

_Positive that Vlad could not see him, Danny rolled his eyes. Oh, God, not again. He fervently hoped that this was NOT going to become a habit._

_"I love you."_

_"Again."_

_"I love you."_

_"Again."_

_"I love you."_

_The cuckoo feebly attempted to chime the hour, failed, and retreated into the ruins, its call cutting off completely._

(~*0*~)

* * *

><p><p>

Danny moaned loudly as Vlad went down on him, his vision spasming. Christ, you'd think that after this happening some fifty-fucking times, it'd die out to almost nothing, but it never did. His hands reluctantly wound into the man's long hair, needing something to hang onto as he started gasping, sweat beading on his already soaking brow. His eyes rolled back, and he stared blankly at the ceiling, still twitching, still moaning as Vlad lapped at him, a smirk on his face as Danny grew harder and harder inside his mouth.

Danny wasn't gay. Of that, he was positive. But it still felt _so good_. He'd long ago given up hope of rescue-he wasn't even supposed to make such a wish anyway; it'd only result in their deaths-but it still blew him away, at how much he could plead for it from a man he despised, who humiliated him, who sent him climaxing on a nightly basis. It was awful and magnificent all at once; he hated the feeling of Vlad's skin against his own, as if whatever brand of crazy Vlad had were contagious, but it always wound up feeling so good.

At least, until the self-hatred and the loneliness and the suicidal thoughts kicked in, which were always waiting for him when he came back down. There was no real pleasure for him anymore-only massive guilt that ruled his life, and everything he did. He found lasting joy in nothing.

Feeling himself close, Danny whimpered and squeezed his eyes shut, wondering what sort of horrible idea had inspired him to ask for a bath. Of _course_ this was going to happen. What'd he expect when the two were stripped naked in front of each other?

Then again, he thought with bitter humor, there were very few things that did not end with sex in this madhouse.

Much to his consternation, Vlad just never seemed to want to _stop_, like a shark on a feeding frenzy. It usually happened maybe once a day, twice a day-three times a day wasn't completely uncalled for; if the man did not have to go to work, (Well, he didn't HAVE to, but that is another matter entirely) he'd have gone nuts by now.

Vlad's tongue dragged up the veined appendage, and caressed it hotly; with a startled squawk, Danny let go, stars dancing before his eyes as Vlad eagerly swallowed his seed, smiling broadly as he took Danny into his arms again, kissing his forehead. But instead of relief, the teen only felt more dread, especially when Vlad's fingers started crawling down to his hips.

More likely than not, Vlad wasn't going to be satisfied with this, and it would mean another night of wishing that he was dead while the man gleefully pounded inside of him. Hurrah.

He rubbed his head wearily, feeling fairly lightheaded all of a sudden. Ugh. Okay, maybe he should have eaten something at dinner. He'd just nodded politely while Vlad had prattled on about his day at supper and had surreptitiously slid all of his food into a napkin. Lately, his stomach had been feeling as though it had been twisted into a pretzel, and his head kept hurting. Badly.

A lightbulb went off in Danny's head, and he leaned his head against Vlad's shoulder, wondering why it felt so heavy all of a sudden.

"Um...darling? I...I think I better get out. It's too hot."

"Thank you, Daniel."

Feeling ready to hurl for more than one reason, Danny shivered and interjected just before Vlad's hands could start stroking his bottom.

"I..I mean, I feel dizzy. I think I'm going to be sick."

Vlad abruptly stood up; frowning anxiously as his hand went to Danny's forehead. For once, the teen didn't mind; Vlad's normally hot hand felt comfortingly cool against his own skin...

"It can happen-I suppose you're still not quite used to the temperature. You can lie down for awhile, and-Daniel?"

There were spots dancing in and out of his vision. Vlad was grabbing his face and saying something, just to be annoying. His stomach twisted again, and he felt his head sear with pain. He lolled it back, feeling ready to throw up. Vlad was gliding out of the hot water, sounding next to screams:

"Daniel!"

And he was gone.

_Flashback: Three Months Ago:_

_For weeks, Danny had been shut inside Vlad's manor, his spectral shackles shocking him into unconsciousness if he so much as touched one of the windows. As a result, even though he craved be flying in the sunlight again, he shrank away from the long halls covered in gleaming bay windows out of fear of more pain._

_There was another pain that went far beyond physical injury that went alongside looking out. Each time he tentatively approached a window and saw the beautiful, emerald grounds flowing away from the dark, magnificent house, his heart nearly broke._

_He could eat but little; thankfully, he normally had lunches separate from the obsessive man, so he wasn't constantly humiliated by Vlad's attempts to hand-feed him. Dinner and Breakfast meant forcing himself to participate in polite conversation with the man. Sewing his head to the carpet with steel wire seemed just as appealing. His blood often boiled before, after, and during his "friendly conversations" with the man, but he couldn't afford to lose his temper. Ever. Not after what harm he'd already caused. _

_The very memory occasionally had Danny waking up screaming and sobbing in the dead of night.  
>When he'd first been trapped here, and the shackles been attached to his wrists and ankles, he'd completely lost it; started screaming at the man with all the loathing and panic his heart could muster. <em>

_He'd told the man that he hated him, that he would die alone, and that Danny would rather be dead than stay another minute in his awful presence._

_Something crucial must have snapped in Vlad's mind. The ghost had lost it, going so completely berserk that he'd attacked Danny as Plasmius, hurling him across the room with several vicious bolts of ecto-energy, nearly killing the teen. But in Danny's eyes, that had been far from the worst._

_Still ballistic, Vlad had angrily switched on a nearby screen in his study, and the dazed boy had looked up from the smashed and splintered remains of the cabinet he'd flown into. There had been blood, blood everywhere._

_And on the screen, to his horror, had been his father, writhing on the ground, screaming. His left arm was nothing more than a stump spraying blood everywhere, all over himself, painting the ground, his wailing wife's jumpsuit as she'd cradled her dying spouse in hysterics…_

_That had been the last time Danny had defied Vladimir Masters._

_He remembered weeping nonstop as he watched his father being rushed into an ambulance, still surrounded in a sea of broken wood and glass. After that, he remembered Vlad hastily approaching him, rage dying in his scarlet eyes for whatever reason. He'd touched Danny's forehead, ignoring the hysterical teen's desperate pleas for his dad's life...  
><em>

_And Danny remembered looking down at his hands at last, also soaked in blood. In his fragile state of mind, he wildly assumed that it was Jack's blood on his quivering hands, and the sobs had increased.  
><em>

_But he'd been carpeted head to toe in deep gashes and burns from Plasmius' attack. He'd been sitting in a pool of his own ruby red blood without even realizing it.  
><em>

_Soon after Danny's renewed sobs, Plasmius had transformed back into Masters, and the man had pulled Danny out of the wreckage, speaking urgently. But the teen had unable to understand anything-hadn't wanted to understand anything. He choked on his tears as Vlad had cupped his face, shouting earnestly to him.  
><em>

_What had it been? It sounded like a panicked, slurred plea.  
><em>

_He remembered pain finally creeping up on his frozen, shaking form, horrible pain throbbing in every sector of his dying body...  
><em>

_Nothing after that.  
><em>


End file.
